doomed
Americanadjective
-
destined, or seemingly destined, especially to an adverse fate.
Math wizards were able to pinpoint the final resting place of the doomed jet deep beneath the ocean.
-
judged guilty and sentenced, especially to death; condemned.
Several times today and tonight the doomed man has wept like a child in his prison cell.
-
ordained or fixed, as a sentence or fate.
In this age of finding everything online, it won’t be long before seed catalogs suffer the same doomed fate as most gardening magazines.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of doomed
Explanation
The doomed are people marked by very bad luck, particularly death. When you learn about a tragedy, like a tsunami that kills many people, it makes you feel terrible for the doomed. Doomed is a plural noun for referring to a group of unfortunate people, and it's also an adjective describing someone who's destined to die. A runaway dog that kills the animal control officer's pet chickens is doomed, and many characters in Shakespeare's tragic plays are doomed. You can also follow doomed with "to" to mean "destined" or "fated." Your uncle might be doomed to continue working as a school bus driver for the rest of his career.
Vocabulary lists containing doomed
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Mayday, mayday, we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot called out from within the cockpit of the doomed Learjet, according to air-traffic audio from LiveATC.net, her voice clearly alarmed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
The reality is United were already doomed under then-boss Tommy Docherty.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
Efforts to institute regulations at an international level are often doomed to fail, typically because of geopolitical and economic competition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
"Any proposal that fails to reconcile our climate objectives with social and economic realities will be doomed to fail," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
I had to get him to remove those, too, or this plan was doomed.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
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